I looked at him for a moment and then stood up, signaling with my hands that he could go back to his place. But he didn’t move, he just brought the phone down from his ear and tapped on the screen. Speaking as he did.

“Nes, I’m just putting you on speaker. I’m actually up at Easton’s.” He cleared his throat as I stood there wondering what happened with the skittish Patrice I knew.

He leaned over and pulled on my hand, while Nesto’s amused voice filled the living room. “Oh? You visiting your neighbor then.” There was a whole lot that was not being said in that answer, but Patrice wasn’t giving him anything.

“That’s right. I brought over some dinner, to pay Easton back for the one he made the other night.”

“Right.” The tone of Nesto’s voice evoked a clear, “More like you went up there with a peace offering for being an asshole.”

If there was one thing I knew, it was that Patrice and his friends told each other everything.

After a few seconds of Patrice glaring at his phone, I broke and spoke in its direction. “Nesto, you can come up if you want.”

I mean we hadn’t been fucking or anything, everyone was fully clothed and there had clearly been a meal happening. Nesto didn’t need to know the details about the last hour of true confessions and cuddling by the fireplace.

Nesto’s friendly laugh snapped Patrice into action. “I’m already here, my dude.” The knock had us both standing up and walking to the door.

I waved my hand to indicate Patrice could let his friend in. As he walked I stayed behind to watch his ass in one of his seemingly endless supply of fitted sweats. By the time he got there and started opening the door I forced my eyes to move up to where Nesto was standing, a shit-eating grin on his face.

After giving each other a hard pat on the back, Nesto sauntered into my place, taking in the scene, which even I had to admit was pretty cozy.

He walked up to me and gave me one of his strong hugs. “What’s up, man?”

I smiled at the way his eyes moved around the room. “Not much, we were just hanging out a bit. Patrice was nice enough to bring me dinner.”